I did buy a cabinet once, and a key piece of wood was warped. Officially you have to take the whole thing back, but I called and they said I could just bring in the warped piece. When I got there they went through all of those particular cabinets in stock, and all but one had warped boards, so they gave me the one straight one.

I do not like the store though. I found that if I go in through the exit, I can get right into the warehouse and get what I want and not have to suffer the maze.

Yeah, I always head over to the bargain corner near the return section. Not only do you get a good price, but you don't have to put it together. That being said, I love putting the stuff together. I heard once that is why people so love their stuff from Ikea. You develop more of an emotional connection with the furniture because of your time and efforts putting it together. It something you almost bond with. At least that's what they said on NPR one time. _________________2011 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM
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I'm personally not a fan of IKEA furniture at this point in my life. I think it's perfect for people just getting a start in life, or people with kids, that are just going to trash or outgrow good stuff.

I also think its perfect for the student who will be living somewhere for 4 years, getting an education and moving on. You can make your place look real good for an affordable price rather than a mismatch of hand me down or second hand crap.

I found a place in my city that manufactures handmade furniture locally. I purchased a pine bedroom set, which I admire and an ash coffee table which I highly adore. Both were on sale because the company was closing it's retail store and going strictly wholesale. I don't think I paid more than $1500 for all of it. The coffee table alone would have been $1000 elsewhere.

I like IKEA for nick knacks, baskets, organizers, candles etc.

Costco is my go to store for most things. They may not have the best selection, but the stuff that they do have is good and their online store has a pretty good selection. I've even purchased art from Costco. Sometimes they get limited production runs of original hand painted pieces.

IKEA for me is the kind of store that I go to for no particular reason and end up walking out with something.

We've purchased a lot of items for our kids at Ikea. And some things for us along the way. Mostly household items and stuff for decorating. We also like looking for furniture on Craigslist. You can find some really nice hardwood stuff on there if you look around. I recently bought a solid oak computer armiore for $175. I almost split my gut getting it home and setup, but it's a really nice piece of furniture. Something that should last for a long time.

+1 on Costco. Their Kirkland branded stuff if awesome. It's way better than the stuff from Sam's Club or BJ's. Heck, I can easily spend two hours in Costco looking around. It's one of my favorite stores.

We still use IKEA a lot, though not as much as we did when we were younger. We furnished our daughter's university room with IKEA furniture, and our sofa bed and some work tables are IKEA. Knock-down furniture is great for portability, and IKEA furniture is well designed. The IKEA store in Toronto is quite good._________________Mini 1 (2012): 2.3 ghz Core i7; 10 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
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